It turns out that there are a bunch of rules of thirds!

Go figure!

There is the one for art where you divide your field into thirds both horizontally and vertically and place important parts of the picture along the guidelines and at the intersections of them.

And then there is the sports rule of thirds Alexi Pappas mentions in her book Bravey. A coach told her 

“When you're chasing a big goal, you're supposed to feel good a third of the time, okay a third of the time, and crappy a third of the time...and if the ratio is roughly in that range, then you're doing fine.”

I like the picture for that one, too:

But I'm really thinking about a whole other rule of thirds! My colleague Suzanne opens many presentations with the reminder to participants that they are critical to the success of the workshop as she explains that the topic accounts for about a third of the session's quality, the presenter another third, and the participants the other third!

I love that!

Haven't you done presentations that were spectacular, and you knew that you'd been your regular level of awesome, but the participants were engaged and engaging? And surely you have topics you prefer to present than others. Obviously you do a great job with the duds, but some topics just sing for you, right? And of course, some days you just aren't on as well as your normal brilliance. It happens. I know all of those situations have been true for me many times!

Lately, though, I've been wondering about other opportunities to apply this rule of thirds. 

I posit that it applies anywhere one is involved.

If I'm a member of a club, I find more meaning from that club if I put more energy into it with the other members.

If I'm a member of a community, I appreciate the community more when I'm invested in it with my neighbors.

I love that feeling of "we're all in this together!"

What about you? Where are you invested, with whom? and What do you get out of it in return?

Where else would you like to test that rule of thirds to find meaning?